If a foreigner is not familiar with xiēhòuyǔ and its ambiguity, it can easily lead to misunderstandings, which can be more or less serious.
In spring 1971, ahead of the historic first visit by an American president to the People's Republic of China, American journalist Edgar Snow conducted an exclusive interview with Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. A well-known quote from this legendary interview later emerged as a mistranslation. Snow wrote that Mao saw himself as a 'lone monk with a leaky umbrella' ('As he courteously escorted me to the door, he said he was not a complicated man, but really very simple. He was, he said, only a lone monk walking the world with a leaky umbrella' Life magazine, special edition Inside China, vol. 70, 4 April 1971, p. 48).
This misunderstanding was not clarified until December 1990, when Gong Yuzhi 嚒育之 (1929–2007), a renowned historian of the Communist Party of China, wrote to the editor of the Beijing People's Daily (Renmin ribao). Mao had quoted the first part of a Chinese idiom and described himself as a 'Buddhist monk with an umbrella' (hèshang dǎsǎn 和尚打伞). The second part, which Mao did not mention, is 'has neither hair nor sky' (wú fà wú tiān 无发无天). A Buddhist monk has a shaved head and an umbrella blocks his view of the sky. The image described in the first part has no metaphorical function here, but merely serves as a hook for a witty linguistic game based on the homiophony of 'hair' (fà 发) and 'law' (fǎ 法). The four-part idiom (chéngyǔ) wú fǎ wú tiān 无法无天 means 'defying earthly and heavenly laws; lawless' or 'omnipotent'.
In other words, Mao was not at all lonely, but was blatantly and jokingly referring to his unlimited power. However, the image of the 'llone monk walking the world with a leaky umbrella' has taken on a life of its own and can still be found in the Western press decades later.